Day: October 18, 2016

‘The International Refugee Law seminar series at the Refugee Law Initiative provides a public space for discussion, promotion and dissemination of research between academics, practitioners, students and others with an interest in the refugee and forced migration field. This 7th annual seminar series addresses the theme of: ‘Protection in the context of large-scale movements of refugees and migrants’.’

‘Humans have made life very complicated. Software code now controls our lives, in power stations, refineries, medical devices, and banking to mention just a few areas. Motor vehicles are largely controlled by software, and aircraft totally controlled by software. People have been injured and killed because of the failure of software. The concept of artificial intelligence was first considered as the topic of a proposal dated 31 August 1955 for a “2 month, 10 man study of artificial intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire”. Governments have provided highly significant amounts of taxpayers money to fund people to conduct research in this area, and the spin-off technology is now used everyday. This seminar will consider the meaning of intelligence; some definitions of artificial intelligence and how to test for artificial intelligence, outlining the criticisms, and will then consider how judges and lawyers should be responding to the new world in which we live.’

‘As we approach the centenary in 2019 of women’s admission to the legal profession in the UK and Ireland, lawyers and legal scholars have initiated several projects to mark this achievement which aim to uncover and recover the history of women’s experiences of law. These include the Women’s Legal Landmarks project, the First 100 Years project and the First Women Lawyers in Great Britain and the Empire Symposium series. This is a golden age for legal scholars undertaking historical work on women and law and for historians working on legal issues.’

‘In my post on the TLT case last week, I mentioned a second recent judgment awarding compensation for a DPA breach. This is the judgment of the Central London County Court (HHJ Luba QC) in Andrea Brown v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police.’

‘British security agencies have secretly and unlawfully collected massive volumes of confidential personal data, including financial information, on citizens for more than a decade, senior judges have ruled.’

‘Litigants whose claims are subject to strict time limits “must make arrangements to ensure that they attend the court office in good time so that they are not thwarted by unexpected problems”, a Deputy High Court judge has said in a planning case.’

‘A decade since London Road was made notorious by the death of five sex workers, its residents have transformed the community and seen their story on stage and screen. But now, they fear government cuts will undo all the work.’

‘A doctor who disputed the existence of shaken baby syndrome has said she was struck off because her views challenged the establishment. Now she is appealing against the decision, as John Sweeney explains.’